Baltimore mayor proposes changing firefighter schedules to 24 hours

Unions concerned over safety, overtime

Working on the Baltimore City budget, the mayor's office said it wants to switch to a 24-hour schedule for firefighters, but many of those workers are concerned about what that change will do to overtime and safety.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday proposed to the city's spending board her operating budget for Fiscal Year 2014, which totals $2.4 billion and is said to close a projected $30 million deficit.

A discussion over changing the schedule has lingered for almost two years and has now come to a head. After a number of closed-door meetings, union officials and the city have not been able to agree, and it appears an arbitrator will have to make the ultimate decision.

As part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's 10-year financial plan for the city, firefighters are having a hard time swallowing what they call a difficult pill, asking them to change their hours and cut their overtime.

"Unfortunately, through talking over all these options with the unions, we haven't been able to come to an agreement. So, it looks like we're headed to arbitration later this spring," Baltimore City Fire Chief James Clack said.

Clack told 11 News the city has been talking to the fire unions for about the past 18 months about switching to a 24-hour shift instead of the 10- and 14-hour shifts that currently exist.

According to the mayor's office, Baltimore firefighters average about 42 hours a week, and 19 of the 25 largest U.S. cities average a longer workweek than that with a median of 52 hours for all the cities. Clack said switching to a 24-hour system -- 24 hours on, two days off, then another 24 hours on -- is a win-win.

"Instead of coming in 182 days a year, they come in 121 times a year. So, there's less commuting. We can afford to give them a significant raise as well to save the city some money," Clack said.

That raise in fiscal year 2014 would consist of a 2 percent cost-of-living hike and a 10.5 percent raise in conjunction with the new schedule -- saving the city an estimated $4 million a year in overtime.

Firefighters union members who spoke anonymously to 11 News said there are issues concerning overtime and fatigue, and that other city employees should be held to the same schedule if firefighters are held to this new shift schedule.

Rawlings-Blake previously stressed in her State of the City address that something needs to be done, saying, "Baltimore firefighters are the best in America. We must work with our fire unions to negotiate a new schedule with significantly higher pay to reduce inefficiencies and prevent the constant threat of firehouse closures."

When Clack was in Minnesota before his job in Baltimore, he wrote a paper concerning going to 48-hour shifts, and he recommended at that time that 24-hour shifts seemed like the best way to go.

Arbitration in the matter should take place in early May, with a decision by June.

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